Hey all,

Has anyone had any success with using Adwords to market their business? I tried out one of Google's $100 free vouchers and it delivered me moderate traffic, but not a great conversion rate and certainly not worth $100 of my money.

tried these and got traffic increase, but nothing converted to sales

Maybe I'm missing something too but my conversions have always been incredibly poor with Adwords. Traffic yes, sales no. I've found other forms of advertising (for example advertising on relates sites, paid forum adverts etc.) more effective in bringing in revenue.

Thanks for your replies guys, think I might stick with my existing advertising and promotion methods for now (unless I see any more $100 vouchers floating around...)

If your conversions are low, then you're targeting the wrong traffic.

The purpose of Adwords (in particular) is not so much to drive traffic, but to drive targeted traffic - people looking for a solution and ready to buy.

If your Adwords underperformed, you may not have done the research needed to choose the correct words or campaign.

This is the usual reason for a failed Adwords campaign. Driving traffic is only half the battle - targeted traffic is easier to convert - but if your website is not easy to follow or designed to convert the sale, this could be where you're losing your conversion.

the last adwords campaign i had i paid someone who designs these campaigns for a living and i got the traffic but not the converted sales and my site is easy to read and navigate

We use Google Adwords to convert traffic month in and month out and it works.

Like Steve, I use Adwords daily and we get the traffic and conversions. These are niche conversions, not a general conversion like going after the word "web hosting".

Your adwords need to target a specific page within your site, not your main page. Those pages must have a high Qual Score too (adword relevance). The higher the relevance, the lower you'll actually spend for your click.

We run one particular campaign we're running this month. So far, we're running at 0.45% click-through rate (28 clicks out of the 6,240 impressions). Average position is at 6.59 and we're converting without issue.

The purpose of the adwords campaign is not to just drive traffic, but to drive targeted traffic. By narrowing down our clicks to only 28 clicks, those are 28 people that are truly interested in what we have to say. While we can spend more money and move higher in the positions, the intended target would also change.

You may have been targeting the wrong audience, wrong time, wrong day of the week etc. We turn off our campaigns during certain hours, and flood it at other times. If the person you're hiring is doing this for a living, and was able to drive traffic to your site, and you still got limited conversions, then there's something wrong with your sales funnel.

Have you evaluated where the client bailed out of the sales funnel?

For getting the conversion you have to optimize your landing pages, make attractive ad copy (call to action).

I would never touch it again, it is not that great as people think.

I know someone who got tons of sales with it and loads that don't, it all depends on how you do it.
There is sure an art to it!

Well i think adwords should be used for brand awareness, Traffic will convert once your brand is out there.

All I can share is that the correct advertising DOES work - but you must use it correctly. For that matter EVERY form of advertisement works, but you have to target the right message at the right audience.

From hotels and real estate to clothing and beads I have used Adwords and have been successful at turning the money I spend on advertising into profit.

Don't limit your budget when running adwords, you have to loose your pocket to understand how it can benefit you. Also you may need a concern person who have expertise in it.

not for me, i had great traffics and sales conversions using adwords. the only problem is, it is only for short time use. it doesn't guarantee a long term sales.

Adwords is useful but you should carefully choose words which you are targeting